


Ghost

by lastyoungrene_gay_de



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Alcohol, Bar Fight, that one guy who is rude to klaus in the bar is officially an asshole because i said so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:00:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22149073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lastyoungrene_gay_de/pseuds/lastyoungrene_gay_de
Summary: Klaus and Diego's visit to the veterans bar from the point of view of an old friend of Klaus'.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 162





	Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> this was only meant to be like 400 words oops

It had started as just a regular day at the bar. It really had. Johnson and Williams were playing pool, Stevens was telling a questionably realistic story, Henderson was being a jackass. Nothing unusual. 

Chaz didn’t look up as the door opened. He heard someone shuffle inside, but still didn’t bother finding out who it was. 

He looked up to order another drink and saw what must have been the newcomer’s jacket laying over the bar, but it looked… familiar. When he couldn’t quite place it, he shook it away and found a way to get another drink in his hand. He took his first sip of his new drink as Henderson stood up. 

_ Oh shit _ , Chaz thought and turned to watch him. 

Their new addition was standing at the wall looking at photos. He was wearing tight black pants and a vest the same color as Chaz’s jacket from his time in Vietnam. He didn’t realize there had been two people that walked in, but there was another man wearing all black standing right behind him with a hand on his shoulder. They were both standing with their backs to him, but he didn’t recognize either of their forms. Wait, maybe he did… but there’s no way it could have been who it was who he thought he was. He’d been gone for over fifty years. 

His moment of disbelief was cut short when Henderson got to them. 

“Hey, guys,” he said with a hand set on the side of the pool table. “This bar? It’s for vets only.” 

“I am a vet,” the familiar one said with a familiar voice. But it wasn’t possible how familiar his voice was. It was like his voice hadn’t been touched by time for even a day since he last saw him. Chaz set his drink on the table and sat up straighter as the second guy turned his head to look at his friend. 

“Really?” Henderson tested with a laugh. “Where’d you serve?”

“None of your business!” he snapped. Henderson didn’t like that at all, but Chaz knew. 

“You got balls comin’ in here, pretendin’ you’re one of us.” 

“I have every right to be here, just like you.” His voice was calm and cool, and he turned around as he spoke. His voice wavered a bit as he spit at Henderson, “Asshole!” Chaz got a look at his face, and god it was really him. Hargreeves was really standing in the bar in 2019 without having aged a day. Even from across the room Chaz could see the broken look on his face, exactly like before. 

God, he hadn’t seen him since… well, since Katz died. 

Those two had obviously been more than brothers in arms. He wasn’t sure if the other guys could tell, but he found out his parents had been covering for each other when he was a teenager, so he left the two of them alone. But he knew he probably wouldn’t have stood up for them if someone else came to a different decision. There had always been a part of him that felt bad about that, but if he did anything at the time he would have faced the same things they did. What good would that have done to any of them? 

But seeing Hargreeves here was jarring. 

Henderson took a step toward them, but Hargreeves’ friend held a hand out to stop him and said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, slow down, marine. Alright? My brother’s just had a few too many. Let’s just call it a day and all go our own way.” Hargreeves turned back around to face the wall again as his brother tried to calm things down. 

“Sure thing,” Henderson said. 

“Thank you,” the brother said. He turned around. “Klaus-” 

“As long as you apologize,” Henderson added.  _ Fuckin’ christ, asshole _ , Chaz thought as his old friend let out a laugh.

“Fine,” his brother said after a few seconds of silence. “I’m sorry,” he continued slowly, as if he was talking to a child. Chaz loved watching Henderson being treated like that, and made a mental note to give the second Hargreeves a handshake after this was over. “He’s sorry. We’re all sorry. So… are we good?” 

Henderson’s head tilted to one side. 

“I wanna hear  _ him _ say it,” he said and pointed to Klaus. His brother cut in again. 

“Hey, man,” he said. “I’m just trying to-” 

“No, no,” Klaus said and began to turn around once again. “He’s right, Diego.” Chaz couldn’t fucking wait to see where Hargreeves’ trouble making ass took this. “I’d like to apologize… that you,” he began walking toward Henderson with a hand on his chest. “Are depriving some village of their idiot!” He screamed the last few words, leaning forward into Henderson’s face, and immediately ducked to avoid the punch Henderson threw. A few of the other regulars stood to help Henderson out, but only one actually jumped in. Two on two- a fair fight. Chaz’s eyes swept the area, and settled on the fight when he was certain no one else was going to jump in. 

Hargreeves was leaning with his back against the wall while his brother punched Henderson in the face and dodged one of the other regulars. Henderson stumbled backwards and one of the other guys jumped forward when it looked like he wasn’t joining back in. The second guy turned back to the brother- Diego, apparently- but Hargreeves jumped on his back before he could make another move. 

Henderson tried to jump back in but Hargreeves kicked him in the chest and he fell back to the ground. He made yet another move to get back, but Chaz hurried over to his side. 

“Leave it fair,” he said, leaning down to Henderson’s level. “Two on two.” Henderson turned to him with a look of disbelief on his face. 

“Are you kidding me?” he hissed. 

“No,” Chaz said and stood up, not offering to help Henderson up. “Besides, from the looks of it this whole bar could jump in on your side and you’d still get your asses kicked.” 

He looked back up at the fight. The brothers were standing back to back, each facing a vet. Both vets swung at the same moment, and the brothers both ducked to avoid taking a hit and ran at waist level toward the door. Diego ran straight out, but Hargreeves ran toward the bar and yanked his jacket off the surface without slowing down as he followed his brother out the door. The bar was silent for a few seconds after their departure. 

Chaz made his way over to the wall Hargreeves was standing at. It was covered in pictures. The one Hargreeves had been standing in front of just so happened to be one of the one Chaz himself brought in to hang on the wall. 

“What assholes,” one of the guys who jumped in said as he helped Henderson to his feet. 

“Give ‘em a break,’ Chaz said without looking away from the 173rd. From Hargreeves and Katz, standing side by side only a few shoulders down from him. “You don’t know them anymore than they know you.” 

“Are you fucking kidding me, man?” the same man said. “They have no right to come in here-” 

“It’s a building man,” he turned around and said with a shake of his head. “We went through shit, he went through shit. Any one of you who couldn’t see that just by looking at him don’t remember looking in a mirror when you first got back.” 

No one said anything, and Chaz figured it was time for him to go. 

And a few days later, when the sky started to fall, he couldn’t help but think his old brother in arms had something to do with it. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading anyway come talk to me about the umbrella academy on tumblr @lastyoungrene-gay-de


End file.
